You're hypothesis starts out with some very flawed logic from the subjective: that is the UF had less than UT.
Using recruiting averages, you see that UF actually had a more talented roster than UT his first year. That predicts a win north of 2/3 of the time.
Using this metric, UT had the more talented roster last year and UT won. Again, this is the expected outcome . That means that while Mac is 1-1 against the team he apparently never should lose to (using his words) both games have been talent predicted. That trend actually continues in UT's favor this season. We will see.
Importantly, Mac isn't performing outside of what these talent predictions would expect either at UF or Colorado State. In fact, he trends slightly below talent expectations historically. At both stops he has been compared against a significantly under-performing coach making his improvement look markedly better even if slightly below what should be expected.
So, what does that actually say about his winning the east in both years? I would postulate it says the same thing that Missouri winning the east did...less about them, and more about the east. But Pinkel did have a history of regularly over-performing, where Mac does not. His performances against Bama show that he isn't over-performing his talent by significant margins (his teams have been more talented than Clemson, FYI). What it shows is that he out-talents the majority of his SEC competition, and they key competition are a bit more unstable. When UGA finds stability, and UT continues to add seasonal depth, this trend doesn't likely continue.